Biography
Blog
Does Brainstorming Actually Work?
December 11 2008
It's a staple of corporate retreats: gather staff, whip out the flip chart and announce that "there are no bad ideas". Many attendees just groan inwardly. Are they just cynics, or are they onto something? Apparently several studies back up the Dilberts of the world, at least to an extent.… read moreNovember 19 2008
Creativity is a good thing. But I think we sometimes fall into the habit of thinking it's the only good thing. Not happy in your job? You probably need more opportunities to be creative. Not happy in your personal life? If you could just express yourself more, you'd feel better.… read moreEsession Version 2: Online Recording, Now More Collaborative
April 06 2008
A little while ago I wrote an article about my experience using esession.com, a web-based "virtual recording studio". Esession struck me as having a very well-integrated collection of professional features. Now comes esession.com Version 2, and it looks like it's going to be better - largely by incorporating more non-professional… read moreAll You Need to Know about Creativity, in 48 Pages
September 20 2007
When I worked in Silicon Valley, I realized after a short while that a big part of my job as a manager amounted to finding ways to help people be creative. After all, if you have a collection of very... read moreWonkosphere: Political Reputation - or at Least Buzz - Management
September 19 2007
It’s early days, but just like the record industry, American democracy is being taken apart and rebuilt by digital technology and the web. Why should ONLamp readers care? Many of you will be designing and building our new democracy. Several trends are converging to make this possible and, I think, inevitable.… read moreMore Political Reputation-Management: The Truth-o-Meter
August 28 2007
Following my recent post about a color-coded reputation management system* for politicians (indicating their truthfulness by the color used to display their names on web pages), I came across Politifact and its Truth-o-Meter. Politifact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly that will “analyze the [presidential] candidates’… read moreFlow Award Nominee: FrameForge 3D Studio 2
August 20 2007
Recently I needed to develop a storyboard in a hurry for a TV commercial. Problem: I can't draw. Solution: FrameForge 3D Studio 2, a pre-visualization tool popular with film & TV directors. Unexpected extra: Flow! I loved working with this... read moreProposal: A Politicians' Reputation Management System
August 20 2007
News of University of California Santa Cruz computer scientist Luca de Alfaro’s Wikipedia trust-coloring system revived - and improved - an idea I’ve been playing with: automated reputation-management for politicians. The idea is to make the concept of honor meaningful again, by creating new social rewards and penalties for behavior… read moreThe Missing Drupal Manual: "Pro Drupal Development"
May 21 2007
Drupal, one of the leading open source content management systems, is amazing. The more I learn about it the more impressed I am by the depth of thought (and amount of work) that’s gone into making it so powerful and flexible. But, thanks to its complexity and to the large gaps… read moreDigital Journalism Case Study: Live Blogging a Political Convention
May 07 2007
The California Democratic Party held its annual convention in San Diego April 27-29, and I was there blogging, along with hundreds of other traditional and web-based reporters. Here are some observations. ... read moreMarch 16 2007
Thinking of trying the Drupal open source content management system? It’s a powerful platform, but the learning curve can be steep, even if you’re already comfortable with its underlying technologies: PHP, MySQL and CSS. As the volunteer webmaster for the Monterey County (California) Democrats, I’ve gotten deeper into this stuff… read moreReflexion Filter: A Micro Recording Booth for Project Studios or Podcasting
March 08 2007
In audio, as in the rest of life, the basics rule. For example, you can spend all the money in the world on great gear, but if your room is bad, you're just going to end up with a great... read moreReflexion Filter: A Micro Recording Booth for Project Studios, Remotes or Podcasting
March 08 2007
In audio, as in the rest of life, the basics rule. For example, you can spend all the money in the world on great gear, but if your room is bad, you're just going to end up with a great... read moreDigital Politics: From CivicSpace to Groundswell
January 28 2007
CivicSpace, the free open source community organizing web platform, is migrating to Groundswell, which is essentially the same thing, but with a subscription fee and a promise to shield users from technical challenges. It’s not surprising: CivicSpace was impressive, but it seemed to occupy a limbo between open source and… read moreBless You, Dolby: Technology Limits Annoyingly Loud TV
January 08 2007
Dolby Labs "is unveiling a sound-leveling technology called Dolby Volume today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that its executives say will finally eliminate the jagged audio discrepancies that exist between shows and commercials and even between scenes... read more
